3 Questions on Reboots, Apps, and WiFi
This week, I’m going to answer three awesome questions that have been sent in to me via Facebook and email: Why does a reboot work? Why does closing apps save battery? And, why does a computer automatically connect to certain WiFi connections?
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3 Questions on Reboots, Apps, and WiFi
This week, I’m going to answer three awesome questions that have been sent in to me via Facebook and email.
1.) Why does rebooting work to fix computer problems?
This question was brought to me by listener Michelle, and it’s a pretty interesting one. A lot of people know that if your computer is acting strange, if your router stops working, or if your phone is kind of glitchy, then you should restart it. About 90% of the time, a simple reboot is all that your system needs.
The question, though, is why does this work? Why does simply pulling the power cord fix your computer’s issues, and why does it seem to work for so many different types of electronics?
Well, the reason has mostly to do with wiping the memory of the device that is running. If you’ve listened to my episode on the anatomy of a computer then you would know that RAM or computer memory holds programs and system processes that are currently in use. After a while of being on or with a lot of programs running, this memory can get packed full of stuff, or just get into a bunch of strange states.
Years and years ago, this was be more of an issue because programs were not designed as well to work with other programs, and some programs didn’t use memory efficiently which would gobble up a ton of resources.
When you shutdown, or reboot, this memory of processes and programs gets erased and your computer gets a fresh start (sort of like waking up from a good night’s sleep). Often times, this will fix whatever minor issue was happening.
The same goes for most other devices that use RAM (which stands for random access memory, in case you were curious). When they are shut off, their RAM is cleared generally fixing whatever weird state they were in. If you’ve ever had to unplug a device for more than 10 seconds when rebooting or shutting off your device, this has to do with capacitors.
Capacitors are like tiny little batteries inside your electronic device. They do a ton of different things, but when you unplug your device they need a short amount of time to discharge completely so your device is truly off. No Frankenstein devices for us!
2.) Why does closing apps save battery?
This question comes from listener Robin, and it’s another one of these questions that many people know and follow but don’t know quite what the answer is.
When you notice that your phone is draining battery particularly fast, one of the best things to do is to close apps that you’re not using. This is different for most devices, but for iOS devices you can double tap your home button and swipe up whatever app you want to close. Likewise, with an Android device if you tap the button to the right of your home button and click the “x” on each open app, you’ll be set.
If this doesn’t make sense, just Google, “How to close apps for [insert device name here]” and you’ll be presented with a ton of different websites that will help!
Closing apps is like closing programs on your computer: it frees up system resources, which means your device has to work less and the less work it has to do the less battery it consumes.
This is especially the case with phone applications because many apps will phone home to a server or make a request for your location. Both of these take a significant amount of power, so if you’re not using them, it’s best to close them. This is really evident when you have navigation, maps, or fitness tracking apps running, because they need your location frequently, and this uses a ton of power to connect to GPS and cell towers.
3.) Why does my computer auto connect to certain wireless hotspots?
This question comes from listener Aaron via email. He’s been having an issue where his phone connects to a router with the name ‘xfinity’ before it connects to the one at his house. This is really annoying because it means he can use his phone with other devices on his network like his Apple TV.
Luckily, this is a really simple issue to fix. At some point, he must have connected to that router either by accident or for some other reason. Your phone will default to the strongest WiFi signal that it can see, which if it happens to be ‘xfininty’ from your neighbor as opposed to your WiFi at the other end of the house it will select the strongest signal every time.
Good thing the fix here is super easy. All Aaron has to do is go into his wireless settings and forget that network ‘xfinity’ that he has been connecting to. This will prevent his phone from connecting to it automatically. He should also turn off the feature to ‘auto join’ a network. This will prevent his phone from connecting to any open hotspots without asking.
On a side note, I would highly recommend turning WiFi off whenever you’re not using it. This will save a ton of battery, and it will keep your phone from connecting to any wireless routers it shouldn’t be connecting to. This also goes along with connecting to routers or access points that don’t have any wireless password on them. These are often unsecure. If you do have to connect to them be sure that you ‘Forget’ each access point when you’re done.
Well, that’s it for today! Be sure to check out all my earlier episodes at techtalker.quickanddirtytips.com.
Reboot image courtesy of Shutterstock.
Until next time, I’m the Tech Talker, keeping technology simple!
